Going cheap: One.Tel's last jewel

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The liquidators of failed telecom One.Tel are attempting to offload its largest remaining asset, the mobile spectrum licences that the company bought for $532 million during the tech boom.

Market analysts expect thelicences to go for as little as $50 million to $80 million, roughly the same amount offered by One.Tel founder Jodee Rich in 2001.

But Stephen Moore, from Moore Wright Associates, which is advising One.Tel liquidator Ferrier Hodgson on the sale, was upbeat.

"We've had significant interest both locally and from overseas organisations," he said.

Mr Moore would not reveal whether the overseas interest included current market players, like Vodafone or Optus parent Singapore Telecommunications. But he did not rule out the possibility of a new competitor entering the market.

The spectrum licences cover greater Sydney as well as Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and expire between 2013 and 2015.

Mr Moore said the liquidator had delayed selling the licences until now due to the moribund market for telecom assets. "We've certainly seen a pick-up across the industry over the last six to nine months," he said.

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The $650 million mobile network on which One.Tel originally planned to use the spectrum was sold to Hutchison Telecom by the network's builder, Lucent, for a zero dollar cash outlay in January 2001.

Telecom analyst Paul Budde said that the spectrum sale might not fare much better, estimating that the vendors could get as little as 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the purchase price.

He said the most likely buyers were incumbents like Optus or Telstra, which may be looking to boost their network coverage with the additional spectrum.

With mobile market penetration in Australia now exceeding 80 per cent, most carriers are focused on keeping costs down by sharing network infra-structure.

Hutchison Telecom's shares jumped 17 per cent to a two-year high of 41c yesterday after the mobile carrier confirmed, for the third time since April, that it had been in talks with other carriers about network sharing.

The current tender for the One.Tel spectrum closes on August 30.

Ferrier Hodgson said it might then negotiate a deal with one of the tenderers, or conduct an open auction at a later date.